Spent Nuclear Fuel

Mina Bionta
December 14, 2009

Fig. 1: This figure shows the nuclear fuel cycle
process. The uranium is first mined and then processed into
nuclear fuel rods. After the rods have been used in a
reactor they are stored in a spent fuel pool for at least a
year. Then they can either be reprocessed and used again,
or disposed of in more permanent storage.

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What is Spent Nuclear Fuel?

Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) is nuclear fuel that has
been irradiated in a nuclear reactor. This means that the nuclear fuel
can no longer fission effectively to maintain the integrity of the
reaction taking place in the nuclear reactor. Thus, that fuel must be
removed, replaced with new fresh fuel, and then disposed of in some
manner. [1]

Nuclear fuel rods are composed of pellets made of a
uranium ceramic. After the fuel is spent, there are still radioactive
materials present in the rods that need to be properly discarded. This
SNF is made up of mostly unused U-238 and fission products from the
U-235 and Pu-239 that are made during the nuclear fission process.
Other potentially harmful elements present in SNF include transuranic
elements created by neutron capture during the reaction process.
Transuranic elements are elements that have a higher atomic number than
Uranium. They are created when a U-238 atom absorbs a neutron emitted
by a fissioned U-235. Several of these transuranic elements include
fissionable products such as Plutonium isotopes.

Why is it Dangerous?

SNF is dangerous because if its high levels of
radioactivity as well as the massive amounts of heat that are produced.
The amount of heat produced just after the reactor is shut down is about
7% of the amount of heat produced in the reactor itself. [2] In fact,
so much heat is produced that the rods need about a year of time to cool
in a pool of water (see below for more details). The heat produced is
not just limited to the immediate time after the SNF is removed from the
reactor. Heat is also being produced by isotopes in the spent fuel
itself, so the amount of heat in the fuel can increase as time is spent
outside of the reactor depending on what isotopes are present in the
spent fuel. The radiation is produced from the leftover uranium that is
left in the rods as well as in the fissionable transuranic elements that
are produced during the reaction process. Other radioactive products
are also produced by the fission process itself and continue to be made
because of the spontaneous fissionable nature of the uranium.

The harmfulness of SNF is categorized by its
potential toxicity to humans. Radioactive products of particular risk
in SNF have potentially biologically harmful effects. The fission
products of Sr-90 and Cs-137 provide risks due to their thermal impact
on the spent fuel. The heat produced by these two isotopes is the major
source of heat emitted by the SNF for the first several years. Tc-99
and I-129 are more biologically harmful isotopes as they are long lived
and a large source of the fission products. Both elements are easily
absorbed in groundwater, thus contamination is a concern when dealing
with these isotopes. The actinides produced by reactors (uranium,
plutonium, neptunium, americium, and curium) are dangerous because of
their long-lived half-lives as well as their tendency to fix to bones
when ingested, thus irradiating blood producing cells. [2]

What to Do With SNF

Since SNF is by definition harmful to people and the
environment, a proper waste technique must be established. The fuel
must be prepared in such a way that it can be safely transferred and
stored.

Since the fuel that comes out of the reactor is
extremely hot, it must first be cooled to a temperature that can be
easily handled. This involves storing the fuel in a pool of water to
cool off the fuel. In a spent fuel pool system, the used fuel is stored
under at least 20 feat of water. This much is needed in order to
provide sufficient radiation shielding as well as to extract heat from
the fuel rods. After 12-18 months, the fuel rods can be rotated out and
replaced with new ones.

According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),
at the current rate of consumption and disposal of nuclear fuel, all the
Spent Fuel Pool systems will be full by 2015. This means an
alternative, more permanent storage system must be built. After the
fuel has spent time in a spent fuel pool, it can be moved to dry cask
storage. In dry cask storage, the already cooled spent fuel is stored
in leak-tight, sealed steel compartments surrounded by inert gases.
Spent fuel can then be stored in these casks for an unlimited amount of
time.

Other, more permanent storage spots are being
developed. For example, in France nuclear waste is buried under the
rocks in Normandy. [2] Even in the United Stated, the Yucca Mountain
Complex would provide a place for the United States to permanently store
all of its nuclear waste. However, as of early 2009, plans for the
development of this site have been suspended. [3]

The final solution to nuclear waste would be
reprocessing. Reprocessing is a form or recycling or reusing the spent
nuclear fuel. By reprocessing fuel, one can gain nearly 25% more energy
from the used fuel. The main idea with reprocessing is to access the
fissionable long living materials such as leftover uranium and plutonium
and make new fuel rods out of them. This would account for nearly 96%
of the original uranium from the rods. Much reprocessing occurs in
Europe, Russia and Japan, however none is being done in the United
States. The waste from reprocessing is less radioactive than waste from
a single use in a reactor and thus is easier to handle when being
disposed of. This is because although the ratio of and quantities of U
in the fuel are the same, the fuel is simply older than that in the
original fuel rods, thus has had more time to decay [4]. The fuel cycle
can be seen in Fig. 1.